Consumers are increasingly using kiosks to conduct business with enterprises. The kiosks come in a variety of sizes and are used for a variety of purposes. Some kiosks are drive through, such as fast food establishments, pharmacies, banks, and the like. Other kiosks are stationary located in gas stations, airlines, grocery stores, department stores, and the like.
In addition, what is considered a kiosk is evolving with today's technology. For example, digital signs now provide advertisements and mechanisms for users to interact with the displays to perform transactions. Such mechanisms include blue tooth communication, Near Field Communication (NFC), Quick Response (QR) code scanning, Wi-Fi communication, and the like.
Moreover, kiosk and full service checkout stations often rely on a variety of devices that are interfaced to checkout stations (manned or self-served), such as scanners, weight scale devices, card and cash accepting and/or dispensing devices, and the like.
Particular issues occur with weight scale devices in the self-service checkout area of enterprises and in the manned checkout area of the enterprises. A lot of effort is made to calibrate and record calibration of weight scales in stores to ensure that a customer is not overcharged for government compliance and conversely to ensure that a customer is not being undercharged so as to create an unfair windfall to the customer.
For example, even a properly calibrated weight scale can be used to commit fraud on a store. Consider for example when a customer is friends with cashier at a store and presents a 2 lb. lobster for payment, the cashier can properly enter the code for a lobster but then intentionally place a kiwi on the scale that gives a weight that is a lot less than 2 lbs. The customer walks away paying around $2-3 for what should have cost close to $50 depending on the current market value for the lobster. There are other situations as well that may not be as nefarious as theft where the scale is not properly used; for example the customer at a self-service checkout may enter a wrong code or a cashier may enter a wrong code for what is actually being weighed. In these cases, the customer may be undercharged or in some instances even overcharged.